Method and system for managing interactive communications campaigns with call pacing

1. Apparatus for managing interactive communications campaigns, wherein a given campaign comprises one or more sub-campaigns, the apparatus comprising a processor, and computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor to perform a method comprising: (a) determining a number of agents that have been requested for a skill group; (b) based on the determination and a number of running passes in each sub-campaign, offering use of all or a portion of the agents to the running passes in each sub-campaign; (c) projecting a use requirement for each sub-campaign; and (d) setting a rate for each pass at a rate to maintain busy either a number of agents projected by the pass, or a number of agents offered to the pass, whichever is smaller; wherein steps (a)-(d) are repeated periodically or as a result of given system events.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the method further includes the steps of: determining if a first pass needs to use all agents offered to it; if the first pass does not need to use all agents offered to it, offering at least some of the agents to a second pass that had previously been offered fewer agents than the second pass had projected it would use.

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the given system events include one of: starting a new sub-campaign, and pausing a sub-campaign.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the projecting step uses data from at least one of: use requirements from another sub-campaign, an average of use requirements from a currently running sub-campaign, and use requirements as evidenced by recent activity in the sub-campaign for which the projection is being done.

5. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein a given sub-campaign has associated therewith a priority.

6. The apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein step (b) is based on the determination of the number of agents, the priority of the given sub-campaign, and a number of running passes in each sub-campaign.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the method further includes adjusting the rate.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 7 wherein the rate is adjusted at a sub-campaign level.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 7 wherein the rate is adjusted at a skill group level.

10. Apparatus for managing interactive communications campaigns, wherein a given campaign comprises one or more sub-campaigns, the apparatus comprising a processor, and computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor to perform a method comprising: pacing individual sub-campaigns of a set of multiple sub-campaigns running under a skill group such that concurrent progress is made on the multiple sub-campaigns; and selectively adjusting an intensity of a rate of an individual sub-campaign under the skill group.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 10 wherein a given sub-campaign in the set of multiple sub-campaigns has a priority associated therewith.

12. The apparatus as described in claim 11 wherein the priority is a weight selected from a set of weights.

13. The apparatus as described in claim 12 wherein the weight determines a number of agents offered to a given sub-campaign for a given pass.

14. An apparatus for managing interactive communications campaigns within a data processing system, wherein a given campaign comprises one or more sub-campaigns, the apparatus comprising: a processor; a computer memory holding computer program instructions that when executed by the processor perform a method comprising: pacing individual sub-campaigns of a set of multiple sub-campaigns running under a skill group such that concurrent progress is made on the multiple sub-campaigns.

15. The apparatus as described in claim 14 wherein the method further includes: selectively adjusting an intensity of a rate of an individual sub-campaign under the skill group.

16. The apparatus as described in claim 14 wherein the method further includes: associating a priority to a given sub-campaign; and based on the priority, determining a number of agents offered to a given sub-campaign for a given pass.

17. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the given campaign is a multi-channel campaign.

18. The apparatus as described in claim 10 wherein the given campaign is a multi-channel campaign and at least one individual sub-campaign is associated with a communications channel that differs from a communications channel associated with another sub-campaign.

19. The apparatus as described in claim 10 wherein an individual campaign is paced according to a pacing model selected from a set of pacing models.

20. The apparatus as described in claim 14 wherein an individual campaign is paced according to a pacing model selected from a set of pacing models.